Saudi Religious Police Clamp Down on Rural Women Drivers

Perhaps one of the most misunderstood aspects of Saudi society in the non-Arab world is the myth that all Saudi women are banned from driving cars. Read any English-language news periodical and the message is absolute: It's illegal for Saudi women to drive.

Well, that's kinda-sorta-usually-but-not-always true.

For decades, Saudi women have been driving on highways and streets outside of urban areas. They must drive because their families' survival depends on it. While men are working, wives are tasked with taking the kids to school, transporting livestock to market, and managing the house. They also drive big tankers to bring drinking water to their villages. Many of these women are also Bedouins who travel from village to village earning a living by transporting goods.

This is not a case of heading down to the local Danube supermarket for a box of corn flakes. This is a long drive, sometimes hundreds of miles, over a harsh desert environment usually in a 2-ton Mercedes truck or a Hilux pickup. These moms, some who arm themselves with a handgun for protection while driving alone, are a hardworking, tough lot that can handle a truck better than most men.

I remember as a child my uncle in one of the Yanbu villages going to work at 4 each morning, leaving the management of the house, the family and the harvesting of their crops to my aunt. She drove all over the region to make sure not only her kids but the extended family were cared for.

As a practical issue, the police and Hiy'a (Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, commonly referred to as the religious police) can't effectively patrol these remote areas. For the most part, women have had free reign in driving vehicles where they please.

Common sense, which is not always a prime ingredient when journalists address perceived wrongs with Saudi Arabia, tells us that it's impractical and dangerous to ban all Saudi women from driving. Of course, Saudi conservatives, and that includes some members of the Commission, share the same problem.

Although rural women have had it pretty easy on the roads, apparently there can be too much of a good thing. Last week, the Hiy'a filed a complaint with the administrative ruler of the Hail region in which they asked him to ban 15 village women from driving their cars and trucks. Now, women who make sure the family's chickens and goats get to market and keep the village supplied with water, are without transportation.

These women can't hire a driver because their primary means of transportation is a pickup truck, which forces them into a state of khalwa -- or seclusion with a non-relative male -- as they sit beside the driver.

Consider what is more dangerous: a woman driving a truck or a woman alone with a male stranger in the middle of nowhere. The female breadwinner is faced with the double whammy of being denied the right to use a vehicle to contribute to the household income and the
right to hire a driver as a solution to her economic problem.

Many Saudis support the idea of enforcement of our moral and religious obligations. Indeed, it's addressed in the Qur'an. But it's quite another thing to mess with hardworking families who depend on the motor vehicle to make ends meet. For decades Saudi law authorities recognized that ranch and farm families were an exception to the driving ban edict because a family's livelihood depended on a vehicle. They understandably turned a blind eye. That right apparently has been taken from them for no reason other than the conservatives feel threatened by it.

Saudi Arabia is in a period of great transition, and there is an expectation of movement forward, not backward. Naturally there are many people who prefer the comfort of the past. Perhaps forcing working rural women to return to camels and donkeys as transportation makes some people feel more comfortable. But their comfort comes at the expense of the working family.

 

Comments

[alexa07]

"For decades, Saudi women have been driving on highways and streets outside of urban areas. They must drive because their families' survival depends on it. While men are working, wives are tasked with taking the kids to school, transporting livestock to market, and managing the house. They also drive big tankers to bring drinking water to their villages. Many of these women are also Bedouins who travel from village to village earning a living by transporting goods.

This is not a case of heading down to the local Danube supermarket for a box of corn flakes. This is a long drive, sometimes hundreds of miles, over a harsh desert environment usually in a 2-ton Mercedes truck or a Hilux pickup. These moms, some who arm themselves with a handgun for protection while driving alone, are a hardworking, tough lot that can handle a truck better than most men."

Sabria, Thank you for a new & different depiction of Saudi women. I also thank you for your advocacy on behalf of women's rights. You promote the discussion, lay the foundation for change to occur, even in the Kingdom.

[MARNIE2]

The point is muslim law......Shariah law in govt. is suffocting .....Women have .....VERY little RIGHTS
NO LIBERTY OR JUSTICE .. ! LAWS WRITEN BY MEN ...FOR ..MEN........ !.....So shariah law is un fair
and without EQUAL.... justice ! .....WHAT IS A WOMEN'S .....VALUE ... ?

[Saudi]

As a Saudi man i say even shout ( IT'S TOTALLY A POLITICAL THING NOT RELIGIOUS AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE HOLY QURAN OR ISLAM )
I can't believe they still banning women from a very simple and important right, even if u look at it from a religion point of u u'll find that even in urban cities its sooo much better for women to drive their own cars rather than sitting behind a stranger driver.
Economically, almost every home hire a driver so they have to pay for his salary, accommodations, health care, food and annual airline tickets to his native country.... etc, so it affects not only the household income but also that means a huge percentage of the whole country income will go directly to other countries, well in my opinion i think thats the only bright side which is helping and making jobs for people from economically challenged countries.

To see how ridiculous it is.. i have 3 sisters 1 of them is a Neurosurgeon, each 1 of them has a driver and its soooo silly & stupid that a Neurosurgeon don't have the RIGHT to drive herself to work... on my part i've taught all of my sisters and even my mother how to drive a car and the have their driving licenses from other countries so they can drive as soon as they leave Saudi Arabia.

Just like extremists and Terrorists, the religious police use or abuse religion as an excuse...

[cobaltbluedog]

It's a real shame that Saudi Arabia, has us, ' over a barrel'.

[MARNIE2]

America needs a.... Crude Awakening ! ...you can't place the blame on the Saudi's ..for OUR lack of Drilling ! ..... ?

[Ivriniel]

Or perhaps its the way America wastes oil?

[rosiebond007]

NO, IT'S NOT IN THE QUORAN.

These people are under the tutelage of the Clerics who want to keep the women in line. They are beginning to see that women are very smart, more smart than some of the men. What is the argument for families to lose their livelihood, trips to the market, water etc. just because of religion. THIS ITEM IS NEVER, REPEAT NEVER MENTIONED IN THE QUORAN.

Mohammed's wife was a school teacher and moved around on her own and encouraged learning - WITH HER HUSBAND'S APPROVAL.

If only they would read the good book as it is written.

[MajorKong]

Nice people.

Sure glad I almost got my behind shot off defending them in 1991.

[13Martyrs]

One would be very hard-pressed to find a Saudi law banning women from driving. There is no actual law on the books because Saudi Arabia has no codified laws. Rather, it's a religious edict. Since driving is obviously not addressed in the Koran, Saudi Islamic scholars take these social issues by erring on the side of caution and issuing the edict banning driving. They also issue edicts not addressed in the Koran over modern-day issues, such as stem cell research and other science-related topics. BTW, women are not arrested for driving. Just held until their father or brother comes down to pick them up and signs a paper promising never to let them drive again. Also, wearing the niqab, or veil, does not impede vision nor speech. Women have no problem communicating with police

[loOranks]

"BTW, women are not arrested for driving. Just held until their father or brother comes down to pick them up and signs a paper promising never to let them drive again."

This is exactly how minors are being arrested by the Police. Would that mean that women are considered minors in SA? And why does a male need to come and pick them up?

[Paula Ann]

please explain why a woman driving a car or a truck is prohibited religiously. no justifiication at all comes to mind.

[GrahamInCanada]

To safely drive a car or a truck, you must uncover more of your face in public than allowed if you are female.

And, while driving a car or a truck, you must be available to speak to police officers, who are male, and if you are not allowed to speak to unrelated males unchaperoned, you are not available to speak to such police officers, so you cannot drive.

Its less religious, than cultural, one thinks.

[Paula Ann]

those sure are cultural reasons. Islam does not require a woman to cover her face; and a woman may talk to an unrelated man as long as it isn't social chit-chat.

[mommadona]

NOTHING will change unless the WOMEN do it themselves.

Cut them off, ladies.
Literally.

No equality - No sex.
No equality - No child rearing
No equality - No food

http://drama.eserver.org/plays/classical/aristophanes/lysistrata.txt

[GrahamInCanada]

Ladies, if you must, cut off the sex, leave the food for the men to prepare, withdraw and refuse companionship, but keep to the children, and care for them, and teach them what you are doing and employ them in the effort, and work so that their world is better.

If women raise the children, they get the men they raised.

[Ali A. Rizvi - Huffpost Blogger]

It IS illegal for women to drive in Saudi Arabia. I lived there for 11 years, and I'm not sure how anyone who has lived there could argue that it's only "kinda-sorta-usually-but-not-always true".

Women get away with it in rural areas not because it's legal there, but because, as you wrote, the authorities turn a "blind eye" to it.

The "misperceived" image of Saudi Arabia in the west is not without foundation. The country gives off mixed messages. The ambassador argues for religious freedom, but even wearing a cross (much less building a church or Hindu temple) there is illegal. King Abdullah says Islam is a religion of peace, but stands before a flag with the Islamic 'shahadah' slogan written on it, right there with a sword underneath it.

The problem is not that there's a crackdown on women driving in rural areas; it's that there's a crackdown on women driving in the first place.

[rosiebond007]

Just a crackdown on women - never mind the driving.